Book Review : Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.

The Bookish Bro Says

Just so you know, this won’t be the typical Brandon Sanderson review. You won’t find any of those ‘It’s Brandon SANDERSON! What else needs to be said!?‘ or ‘Sanderson is a god and that’s all you need to know!‘ crap that most Sanderson fans spout whenever they make a review for one of his books. I haven’t read any Sanderson books before Skyward so I always rolled my eyes at people who claim he is the best writer alive…

But dang, I can’t deny he’s a very talented writer.

I had high expectations for Skyward (mainly because of the Sanderson fanatics who swear by his work) so I was pleasantly surprised when the book tore through the roof of my expectations.

You know how in some animé shows, there are fight scenes where the villain gets surprised by the hero’s special move? The villain is stunned and the hero proceeds to beat their ass with some cool, super combo finish. That’s what Skyward did to me.

But I digress. Here are three reasons why this sci-fi fantasy was such a page-turner for me:

1.) VERY interesting characters with, both, pleasing and not-so-pleasing personalities. Sanderson created a cast of characters that I instantly fell in love with. This includes the main character, Spensa, whose growth and development took me on a ride throughout the whole book,M-Bot, the cuddliest sentient spaceship I have ever known, Doomslug, a character that does not have ANY dialogue at all but snatched my heart with just a couple of whistle tunes, and many more.

2.) Short chapters that are chock-full of detailed battle scenes, sorta-romance, teen angst, adventure, or drama! I flew threw the pages of this book, mainly because the chapters are short but entertaining and, most importantly, contain significant content. There’s no ‘filler chapter’; every page contributes to the overall story and Sanderson’s writing allows the chapters to flow through one another seamlessly. He’s one of those writers that knows how to grab your attention by the nose and pull you along until the story ends… or until you can’t breathe anymore.

3.) Sanderson’s gory yet comical battle cries that he peppers throughout the book.

“Just for that, I shall hunt your firstborn and laugh with glee as I tell them of your death in terrible detail, with many unpleasant adjectives!”

I mean, if THAT doesn’t get you to read Skyward, I don’t know what will!

My Rating

And so to end this review, I would just like to say that I am now a fan of Sanderson. Oh-fish-ially. Skyward has made a Brandon Sanderson fan out of me and I can’t wait to read his other books! If he did so well with Sci-fi, I don’t know how blown away I will be by his high fantasy work!

The Author

He’s BRANDON SANDERSON! Do you really need an introduction?? LOLJK.

Brandon Sanderson was born in 1975 in Lincoln, Nebraska. As a child Brandon enjoyed reading, but he lost interest in the types of titles often suggested to him, and by junior high he never cracked a book if he could help it. This changed when an eighth grade teacher gave him Dragonsbaneby Barbara Hambly.